It is a terrible, preventable, debilitating disease that gradually robs miners of their ability to breathe. It can be prevented by reducing coal dust exposure to those who labor in underground mines.

This newspaper, over the last several decades, has documented the toll black lung disease takes on the health and lives of miners as well as the ongoing battles to cut dust exposure in an industry too often driven by profit instead of health and safety of its employees.

And despite attention and prevention efforts, black lung disease is rising among miners at alarming rates.

"Black lung is still an ongoing issue, they're diagnosed every day," said Floyd County Judge-Executive R.D. "Doc" Marshall.

The new coal dust regulations, announced after years of planning and delay, represent a step toward reversing that trend.

More modest than recommended by government scientists, the regulations announced by U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez will require that the concentration limits for breathable coal mine dust be cut by 25 percent to 1.5 milligrams per cubic liter of air, The Courier-Journal's James Carroll reported Thursday.

The rules, to be phased in over the next two years, come nearly two decades after the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health recommended cutting dust limits from the current 2 milligrams per cubic meter of air to 1 milligram.

The new rules also will require miners to wear "real-time" dust monitors, expand dust sampling in mines, close some dust sampling loopholes, institute swifter enforcement for violations and increase medical monitoring of miners.

Safety advocates were critical that the rules don't go further in cutting dust limits. Tony Oppegard, a Lexington lawyer and former state and federal mine safety official, said he found the final version "disappointing."

Still, the rules would work to increase protection to workers and reduce cases of black lung disease.

"No one should have to die for a paycheck," Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said in announcing the new rules. "It is time to put black lung into the history books once and for all."

But within hours of the announcement, the rules already were under attack by a major mining company.

Murray Energy, operator of the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah where six miners and three rescue workers died in two collapses in 2007, is threatening a lawsuit to block the regulations, Mr. Carroll reported.

The bodies of the six Crandall miners were never recovered and they remain entombed in the underground coal mine.

Murray Energy, which operates coal mines in six states including Kentucky, paid about $950,000 in fines over the Utah disaster. Murray mines have paid about $18 million in civil penalties for safety violations since 1997, some involving dust violations, Mr. Carroll reported.

But Bob Murray, who heads the company, is apparently unchastened and continues to rail over President Barack Obama's so-called "war on coal" and his "radical appointees."